Priority Seat Moquette

I wonder if people on the District Line are particularly bad about giving up seats? If so, the new(-ish) moquette on the seats makes it pretty clear where the priority seats are:


Not content with the sign on the glass above them, some "priority seats" have the bright orange "give-up-this-seat-to-someone-who-needs-it-more-than- you" icon emblazoned on the seat upholstery.

Although admittedly if I saw a jaundiced looking man with a seat growing out of his leg and a woman with a young child attached to his arm, I'd move out if his way pretty sharpish.

Before we pat London on the back for being innnovative, it looks like we are behind the Japanese with this, who've gone for a more subtle approach. Probably too subtle for many people.


But I wonder how long it will take for someone to do a spoof of the priority seating signs similar to the Japanese subway spoof



Here's what it normally looks like

Guess where Tube Stop

Looks like the London Undeground itself liked the quiz run on the blog a few weeks ago where station names were blanked out. As an experiment it appears they decided to incorporate it onto the network.


Karl took this photo and said "Where am I? Imagine pulling into this station as a tourist or with English as a second language - no, hold on, it doesn't matter what language you speak - unless you can telepathically communicate with the sign."

If anyone would like to make any guesses as to the station Karl pulled into, please leave them in the comments below. Let's hope in the meantime that TfL have managed to fill in the sign.

London has "world's best" public transport

It's not a publicity stunt by Mayor Ken, and I certainly feel sorry fo the rest of the world, but apparently London has the best public transport system on earth. Even though it was considered the most expensive, (no surprises there then) worldwide vistors to a TripAdvisor poll voted London as having the safest public transport, the best subway system and the best taxis.


New York was runner-up to London as the best for public transport and was also second most-expensive.

Michelle Perry, TripAdvisor's communications director, said "For the second straight year, London and New York were tops for public transport among travellers. As they also rate as the most expensive among travellers, it's proof that even when it comes to riding a bus or a subway, you get what you pay for." Mmmm an overcrowded, delayed, badly in need of repair, hot, strike happy service as far as the Tube is concerned.

Just over 800 people completed the poll, which is hardly representative of the "world's" travellers. However, they seemed to have a bit more sense when it came to voting on cleanliness when London came fourth. Washington won this category.

Never one to seize an opportunity to boast about London's Transport, Ken Livingstone said to the Independent "What we are seeing are the fruits of real and sustained increased investment in London's public transport, a break from the previous policy of deregulation and choking off resources.

"London has achieved a unique shift in journeys from cars to public transport, a 40 per cent increase in bus ridership, cleaner engines for buses and taxis, traffic down in the city's centre, and 83 per cent increase in cycling, and the biggest transport investment programme since the Second World War."

If you want to see more from the 800 poor deluded folk check out Female First. Also if you have any views on which public transport system you think is the best in the world, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Tube Map Diet

It was ironic that I saw the londonpaper's story about the Tube Map Diet in a carriage where the remains of a real Tube Diet were left behind.


A Tube Map diet isn't about surviving on left over pizza, rat kebab and pigeon pie. It's the challenge to spend a week only eating food that is grown or reared within the spread of the London Underground map.

It's not too easy but he manages to find a couple of city farms, some farmers markets and some honey produced in Regent's Park.

He could have tried the other challenge of surviving on food from Tube stations. Unless you're lucky enough to use a station with a Marks & Spencer's in it, you're stuck with newsagent fodder or the odd samosa, chicken roll and doughnut from Treats.

I suppose the advantage of not having much decent food on sale within very close vacinity of Tube stations, means that you get fewer people eating smelly food on it. If I'm particularly starving and have a had a few drinks I've been known to forget Tube etiquette and tuck into some fried chicken. I try to keep it in the bag as much as possible when I'm not gnawing on it, but am still aware of the evil stares of people and subtle nose wrinkling going on.

Guess Where Tube Quiz - Answers

IanD's "Guess Where Tube quiz" got a great response with many of you guessing the location of various stations which is quite hard when the station names are blanked out.

Here are the results:

There were 12 stations in total one for each Underground line. 5 stations are in Zone 1. 6 stations are in Zone 2. One station is in Zone 3. One station is in Zone 5. The additional clue that I didn't give, just to make it harder, is that they are all on interchanges.


Picture 1 - King's Cross St Pancras (guessed correctly most times - 13)


Picture 2 - Elephant & Castle (the sandwich bar was a bit of a give away there - but only 4 people guessed this correctly and there were some wild differences in guesses with this one)


Picture 3 - Finsbury Park - guessed by five people


Picture 4 - Bank - 11 people got this one


Picture 5 - Canada Water - 7 guessed this


Picture 6 - Rayners Lane - guessed by 8 of you


Picture 7 - Farringdon - 9 people got this


Picture 8 - Edgware Road - 7 got this right


Picture 9 - Whitechapel - 8 people guessed correctly


Picture 10 - Finchley Road - only 5 of you got this


Picture 11 - Mile End - guessed by 10 people


Picture 12 - Ealing Common - this was the hardest and only two of you guessed it correctly

No one guessed all twelve correctly but Rich and Chz got 11 stations each (quite an achievement), miles away got 8 and John F got 7.

Many thanks again to IanD for devising the quiz. Great idea and yet pretty difficult to solve.